“I know,” she agreed, with a little sigh, “it is hard on you,
and it will be harder still if the story of this should ever creep
out of the wilderness to the country where you come from—wouldn’t
it?” and she looked at him very sharply, noting the swift color
flush his face, as though she had read his thoughts. “Yes—so it’s
lucky, Max, that we haven’t talked to others about that little
conditional promise, isn’t it? So it will be easier to forget, and
no one need know.”
“You mean you think me the sort of fellow to break our
engagement just because these fools have mixed you up with this
horror?” he asked, angrily. “You’ve no right to think that of me;
neither have you the right—in justice to me as well as yourself—to
maintain this very suggestive manner about all things connecte
